[unreadable] The scientific basis for assessing interventions designed to reduce the prevalence and impact of the rheumatic diseases has been rapidly expanding, with contributions from several disciplines, including but not limited to rheumatology, epidemiology, economics, social and behavioral science, and health policy. The proposed conference is designed to review the state-of-the-art in this field, from the evidence that we can modify risk factors for the onset of rheumatic conditions to the evidence that we can arrest its progression through medical, behavioral, and public health interventions and do so in a cost-effective manner. The conference is timely because of the growing interest nationally in improving the quality of care, an interest reflected by the development of the Committee on Quality Measures within the American College of Rheumatology. [unreadable] [unreadable] The proposed conference would have three related aims: 1) to review methodological developments in the tools with which we assess the evidence-base for interventions to reduce the onset and progression of disease; 2) to understand the relevant dimensions of outcomes, including but not limited to traditional measures of disease progression as well as patient-reports of symptoms and quality of life in both quantitative and qualitative terms; and 3) to summarize the emerging evidence-based literature in the Rheumatic diseases about the effectiveness of interventions to reduce the prevalence and impact. Overall, the conference should serve as a review of where we stand in our ability to modify risk factors for onset and modify the course of the rheumatic diseases. [unreadable] [unreadable] The target audience for the conference would include clinician-investigators and other researchers in rheumatology, health economists, health psychologists, medical sociologists, medical anthropologists, health services researchers, and epidemiologists; advocates for persons with arthritis and for arthritis research funding; and policymakers in a position to affect the research agenda in evidence-based rheumatology and/or to affect investment in programs to reduce the prevalence and impact of rheumatic diseases. [unreadable] [unreadable] The conference will be one day in duration and will take place on November 12, 2005, the day preceding the formal opening of the Annual Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]